Saturday, June 29, 2024

T. Cohn....my only metal dollhouse

 


T.Cohn, Inc., produced one of the first modern metal dollhouses. 
 The Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog of 1948 sold it  for $4.75.

The all metal house contains six rooms plus a sun deck. 
 The door and the five front casement windows open.



The house is lithographed with red brick
 on the lower part and white shingles above.


Wonderful graphics continue around the house.



The interior of the house is colorfully decorated in the styles 
I remember seeing in magazines while growing up in the 1950s.



Wood floors with area rugs....



modern linoleum designs in the kitchen....



 tufted designs in the carpet....



and of course swans in the bath.



In children's rooms cardboard cut-outs decorated the walls 
in colorful nursery rhyme and circus shapes. 



I've decorated this house with Plasco furniture, 
first made in 1944 by Plastic Art Toy Corp. of America.


At 11" by 12", the living room is large enough
 to hold a nice arrangement of furniture.
  


 Plasco furniture is mid-century stylish and extremely well made.



When I first started collecting in 2005, I was impressed with this furniture having finished backs and undersides on many of the pieces....just like real furniture. No wonder long-time and avid collector Roy Specht says 
it is his favorite dollhouse furniture.
 


A fireplace with bookshelves, a grandfather clock 
and a television were included with the living room set.
The TV set has a rotating dial to change the picture on the screen.
  


The dining room was produced in a solid mahogany, 
the above marbled mahogany and later in a warm beige.


A boxed set included a table, 4 chairs, 2 serving pieces, 
and a buffet with a separate china cabinet.


The kitchen was provided with pieces that were enjoyed by little girls who could set up their dollhouse kitchen just like mom's.


 Besides the normal kitchen appliances and table and chairs, a separate cabinet and an island room divider with shelves were produced. 
  


 The back of the kitchen pieces were finished
 like other pieces in Plasco production.


My nursery set includes two cribs, a chest and a changing table. 
A dresser with mirror and 
a mirrored two drawer chest were also available.



Notice that both sides of the crib raise and lower.



The bathroom in this T. Cohn dollhouse is too small 
to include the vanity (without mirror) along with the other fixtures.
 


Bath fixtures all in a lovely shade of aqua



 Lovely blue "chenille" bedspreads are on the matching twin beds.
 


The bedroom set included twin beds, a vanity with mirror and stool, 
a bedside table and a chest of drawers. 
  


As in other Plasco pieces, the backs of the chest and vanity are finished.
  



The Plasco patio furniture is highly collectible.



The legs on this patio furniture are a bit fragile,
 and the front legs on the chaise are often missing. 
This is probably my favorite dollhouse patio furniture.



Plasco babies, the only dolls made by Plasco, stand 2½" tall. 
I think these two have been playing in the sandbox! 



This is a Renwal family, just like the ones that came 
in my Keystone of Boston dollhouse, Christmas 1949.

Early in  blogging on My Vintage Dollhouses, I posted about my Plasco dollhouse filled with Plasco furniture. If interested, you can view it here.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Home Alone....in a 1936 Rich Toys Tudor


This is "The Kent", produced by Rich Toys in 1936. According to Rich Toys Dollhouses 1935-1962, it has all the features which define a group of 1936 Rich dollhouses, including stenciled shrubbery, paper shutters, wooden porch lights, black diamond-paned windows 
and metal reinforcements on the corners and roof. 



"The Kent" is one on the few Rich dollhouses with an opening side door, 
complete with its own roof. 





I had fun with the interior of this little house, adding timbering
 to match the timbering on the exterior of the house. 
 The first floor exterior doesn't have timbering, but my interior does....owner's prerogative!



  The floors were an off-white....I used a thin wash of brown acrylic, 
and then inked in floorboards. 



A lot of the furniture is Barton Tudor....one of my favorites.




This is the home of Francis and Catherine Cavendish 
and their daughters Marian and Bridget.  
I hope the person who made the lovely clothes for Catherine and Francis 
sees them here and knows they found the perfect home!




"Catherine, are you positive it will be OK for Marian and Bridget to be home alone?"



"Gee whiz, Pops, of course it will. Duh!"



"Marian and Bridget, your dinner is in the casserole on the table. 
We will be home late....to bed early and NO shenanigans!" 



"Come, my lovely Catherine, 
I've ordered a carriage to take us to the ball."



"I hope my American Express wasn't maxed out. 
Those Yankees can be difficult at times."



"Wonder what mother left us for dinner?"




"GRUEL!"



"I think this cinnamon cake will make a much better dinner!"



"If I jump anymore, I will throw up! Let's go "mountain climbing"!"

 

"I shinnied up the post, you can at least stretch higher."




"Wonder what mon keeps in these jars?"





"Our little angels!"





This is one of my favorite dollhouses. 



With just four rooms, it was easy to furnish.



I tried to make the furniture as era appropriate as possible.



A Tudor house with running water!




Must add a chamber pot.


Polar bear rug?



Time-traveling dolls....



Time travelers in the toy box also!

 

Some of the furniture identified: 


A small Biedermeier dresser and a Triang Queen Anne wing chair with foot stool. 
You can see a complete collection of this lovely Queen Anne furniture 
on Zoe Handy's Truly Madly Tiny blog. 

Zoe Handy is the editor of Dolls' Houses Past and Present, a great E-mag venue 
for information on dollhouses and dollhouse furniture world wide. 
If you are not familiar with it, check it out....free to join! 





This sofa was unfinished when I purchased it on Ebay.  The design with the nail head tacks, indicting a tufted seat, would put it being produced mid 1920-30s....possibly made in Germany. 



There is a sticker underneath indicating 
it was sold at The White House in San Francisco.

 

The beds are German, circa 1910-20.



The dark stain on these Barton Tudor pieces indicates they are from 
the earlier period of production. 
Barton produced dolls house furniture from 1945 through 1984. 
This information is from Marion Osborne's Bartons "Model Homes":
"the dying process was a nasty job, trying to get the antique look
 and Bartons experimented with various dyes to get the effect.
 Originally they had girls dipping each item into a mixture of dark oak naptha stain,
 which took ages to dry and got everywhere. 
So it's probably a case of not working to exact amounts each time, 
or variations to the dye itself and the result is the difference in colour."
 



Three fireplaces in this Tudor home....far left is Barton Tudor.




It took me a long time to find a stove from the right period that was also the right size....but a great excuse to surf Ebay!  The listing noted that it was purchased in England in 1992 but there is no maker's mark.  The sink is an English production....unsure of who produced it. 

Hope you enjoyed the trip through one of my favorite little houses!